Press Releases

Mar102016

WASHINGTON—Arkansas’s U.S. Senators John Boozman and Tom Cotton today helped introduce a resolution calling for fighters involved with Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) to be detained at Guantanamo Bay (Gitmo) if they are captured by the United States.

Boozman and Cotton are among 14 original cosponsors of the resolution, authored by U.S. Senator Steve Daines (R-MT), which follows the recent announcement that U.S. Special Forces captured an ISIL chemical weapons specialist while carrying out military operations against the terrorist group.

“Closing Gitmo and transferring detainees to American soil creates needless national security risks and poses unnecessary threats to American citizens,” Boozman said. “The state-of-the-art facility is more than serving its purpose for detaining the worst of the worst, obtaining valuable intelligence from them and keeping these terrorists who are bent on destroying America from returning to the battlefield. As the threat posed by ISIL grows, Gitmo remains the only option to house these terrorists. Any facility on U.S. soil is not an option. It never was with al-Qaeda terrorists, nor can it be with ISIL terrorists. We are committed to ensuring that President Obama understands this and is prevented from closing the detention center at Guantanamo Bay.”

“Guantanamo Bay is a first-rate detention facility that’s kept terrorists off the battlefield, provided valuable intelligence, and made America safer,” Cotton said. “President Obama needs to recognize this and begin sending dangerous Islamic State terrorists to Gitmo. Just yesterday, the New York Times reported that an Islamic State terrorist with expertise in chemical weapons was in the custody of U.S. Special Forces. That terrorist should be sent immediately to Guantanamo Bay for detention and interrogation, and not read his Miranda rights or turned over to another nation. Our priority should be stopping terrorists, not providing them with constitutional rights that rightfully belong to the American people they are trying to kill.”

of Iraq and the Levant should be detained at United States Naval Station,

Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Resolved, That it is the sense of the Senate that—

(1) the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) has declared war on the United States;

(2) the United States Armed Forces are currently engaged in combat operations against ISIL;

(3) in conducting combat operations against ISIL, the United States has captured and detained individuals associated with ISIL and will likely capture and hold additional ISIL detainees;

(4) following the horrific terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, the United States determined that it would detain at United States Naval Station, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, individuals who had engaged in, aided, or abetted, or conspired to commit, acts of international terrorism, or acts in preparation therefor, that have caused, threaten to cause, or have as their aim to cause, injury to or adverse effects on the United States, its citizens, national security, foreign policy, or economy;

(5) members of ISIL captured by the United States during combat operations against ISIL meet such criteria for continued detention at United State Naval Station, Guantanamo Bay; and

(6) all individuals captured by the United States during combat operations against ISIL that meet the criteria by their affiliation with ISIL must be detained outside the United States and its territories and should be transferred to United States Naval Station, Guantanamo Bay.